1. What do the notations 'n ', 'h ' and 'v ' mean?
2. What are 'super stability', 'prestress stability' and 'stability'?
3. I want to read the references related to symmetric prismatic tensegrity structures.
4. The JAVA program does not work well in my computer.
5. The JAVA program run well previously but it fails to be loaded now.
6. How about I have futher questions?

1. What do the notations 'n ', 'h ' and 'v ' mean?

n is the number of struts. h and v denote the connectivity of horizontal cables and vertical cables, respectively. (See Connectivity in Method.)

2. What are 'super stability', 'prestress stability' and 'stability'?

They the stability criteria widely used in the community of tensegrity structures. Super stability is the strongest among these three, and is preferable in the design of tensegrity structures. Stiffness of members is assumed to be infinite for the prestress stability. Hence, stability implies prestress stability. (See Stability in Method for more).

3. I want to read the references related to symmetric prismatic tensegrity structures.

For the super stability of this class of structures, please refer to the paper by Connelly and Terrel [1]; prestress stability investigation can be found in our paper [2], while the symmetry-adapted formulations used to simplify the numerical computation and achieve deeper insight into the structures can be found in [3].

4. The JAVA program does not work well in my computer.

(1) Your operation system (OS) need to be MS Windows, Linux or Solaris, but NOT Mac.

(2) You need to install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), which can be freely downloaded in Sun's website.

(3) You need Java 3D 1.3.1 API (OpenGL version for Windows) (click to download)

In addition , you may need to restart your explorer after installing the JRE and Java 3D API.

5. The JAVA program run well previously but it fails to be loaded now.

You can uninstall the Java 3D API and then reinstall it again, because the Java Runtime Environment imay be automatically updated to in new position while theJava 3D API remember its old position, so you just need to reinstall it to let it find the right position by itself.

To avoid this, you can shut down the 'Automatic Update' option in JRE's Control Panel.

6. How about I have futher questions?

Please contact Dr. Simon Guest or Mr. Jingyao Zhang if you have any questions about this class of structures.

If you have any comments and suggestions on the website, please write to Mr. Jingyao Zhang.